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Inmates with serious mental illness are confined in so-called restricted housing units that
exacerbate their illness, according to a complaint posted on the website of the Disability Rights
Network of Pennsylvania. The filing couldn’t be independently verified in records in federal court
in Harrisburg.

Prisoners in the units are locked in small cells for at least 23 hours a day on weekdays and 24
hours a day on weekends, according to the complaint, which described the situation as “a Dickensian
nightmare” that violates the constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

“This is a vile and inhumane way to treat people with mental illness,” Robert W. Meek, an
attorney for the Disability Rights Network, said in an emailed statement.

The state hasn’t yet seen the complaint, a Corrections Department spokeswoman, Susan McNaughton,
said in an email.

Roughly 51,000 prisoners are housed in the state’s 26 correctional facilities, according to the
department’s website. Mentally ill prisoners make up 22 percent of the total population and about
33 percent of those in restricted housing, the complaint says.

The Disability Rights Network seeks a court order barring the housing of mentally ill prisoners
in the restricted units and for unspecified damages.